Sunday, February 11, 2007

Richard Cummings on Lockheed Martin (Guest post by Noise)

Did anyone listen to Scott Horton's exceptional interview with Richard Cummings which Luke linked last week? Cummings wrote the article Lockheed Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Cummings take is basically that the neocons are fronts for the MIC companies like Lockheed Martin. Meaning, the US isn't fighting wars for Israel as some people allege, rather the main motive is war profiteering. Of course, things aren't black and white. I'm sure ideology is a factor just not THE factor.

Cummings also suggests that the MIC interests overruled Big Oil. I'm not convinced of this argument. Big Oil hasn't done too badly as a result of the Iraq invasion. And I believe that once the sanctions were lifted countries like France, Russia and China would have their oil contracts reinstated-definitely not something Big Oil wanted to see happen. Greg Palast writes about a state department regime change plan in his book Armed Madhouse. This plan called for a very quick military operation (a few days) with the goal of installing a more US friendly leader. This was the sort of plan that Cummings suggested was favored by Big Oil (regime change without occupation). I guess the rationale was no Hussein=all oil contracts would be null and void.